Process of treating ores.



PROCESS or TREATING oooo invention comprehends a process which not separation of the eaocsss OF TREATING ones.

ANANIAS n. icy-ans, or MOUNT PLEASANT, PENNSYLVANIA.-

S PEO' Ali ION part of Letters Patent No. 700,530, dated May 20,1902. 0

substances with which it is associated in the,

ore or mattefor example, the ores of copper, lead, silver, gold, and other metals. In the development of the process it involves the employment of a flux and an oxidizer or oxygen-furnishing agent which furnishes the oxygen whichcombines with the various oxidizable impurities of the ores and removes them as oxids.

My process thus recited is based upon the discovery that asbestos when combined-with a flux will quickly reduce ores to a liquid state at a comparatively low temperature and will effect a thorough separation of the metals, thus facilitating the melting and separation. of ores which heretofore have been treated by methods involving considerable time and expense. These ores usually contain a number of diiferenit metals in various quantities, and ordinarily such metals cannot be separated except by the snbjectionof theore to a series of different treatments, whereas the presentonly eifects the ready fusion of the ores at a low temperature, but at the same time insures the separation of the silica and other impurities from the metals and causes an effective separation of the metals contained in the ore.

It is further contemplated to originate a process which Willmot only provide for the metals, silica, sulfur, and other substances, butwill also provide for the separation ofthe-metal from the matte itself, thus accomplishing. the separation of the metal in one operation and efiecting the con centration of the seyeral metals in separate strata or layers above or below the other substances in the matte, according to the relative 0 Application filed March 13,1 901. Serial No. 61,000. v (No specimensi) specific gravity of the various component substances of the ore. with the asbestos in carrying out the process is for the purpose of facilitating the fusing of the ore and of the asbestos in order that the latter may more readily efiect the separation of the metals and other substances, while the flux dissolves any metallic oxidswhich might form or tend to form during the melting of the ores.

In the accompanying drawings I have illustrated oneform of apparatus which may be employed in practicing my process,

Figure 1 is a sectional plan view of a'furnace equipped with a blower; and Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view on the line 2 2 of Fig. 1, omitting the blower. 1

Referring to the numerals employed to designate the parts of the apparatus, 1 indicates the furnace, having a depressed bottom 2, a suitable top or cover 3, and charging-doors 4:. Along one side of the furnace, near thetop thereof, is provided an air-chamber 5 in com munication with a suitable blower 6 and designed to constitute an air-reservoir for a se-. vries of blowing-tubes 7, by means of which a The combining of the flux blast of air may be projected intothefurnace during the practice of .my process, to be described. At the side of the furnace opposite the air-chamber 5 is located a receiving-flue 8,.provided with a stack 9 at one end and communicating with the interior of the furnace through aseries of short tubes 10.

In carrying out the process the ore is taken as it comes from the mines and preferably is I crushed and then mixed in any suitable man nor with asbestos and-is sprinkled with a flux-as, for instance, bore-x; The ore, thus intermixed with the fluxing agent and with the asbestos, which constitutes a separating agent, is then subjected to the action of heat in the furnace and pre ferablyin the presence of oxygen prbduced' by anoxygen-furnishing agent,- which may be chemical or me.- chanical, or gen-furnishing agent is used, I prefer to employ potassium permanganate, vwhich may be sprihkled over the ore'prior'to or after its introduction to the furnace; The mechanical both. When the chemicaloxywill be more quickly released as oxids, while,

the gangue and other less oxidizable impurities are fluxed off by the asbestos and borax to permit the separation of the metals.

It will be evident that the order in which the enumerated steps are practiced is not essential-tha t is to say,theseparatingand fluxing agents-to wit, the asbestos and borax" may be mixed with the ore during the crushing of the latter or afterward, or they may be introduced separately or together or before or during the subjection of the ore to heat within the furnace. The only essential peculiarity of the process, so far as the order or sequence of its steps is concerned, is that the ore must be subjected simultaneously at some time during the carrying out of the process to the action of heat and to the action of the fiuxing and separating agents.

For the purpose of making clear the reac-' tron resulting from the combination of chem-,

icals employed a few of-the typical reactions which I believe to occur appear in the carrying out of the process may be stated as follows 2 'lypes for Sztlfids and Sulfur Compounds.

Chalcopyrite and type for copper matte:

CuFeS,+ O=Cu+Fe-{- SO Eru bescite:

Ut1 FeS.,+ O 3011 Fe+3S0 Galena: PbS-hO: Pb+ S0,. Argentite:

Types for Arscnide Whitneyite:

Mispickle:

Fe AsS O=atFe+As O SO &c.

Similar reactions take place in connection with antimony, telln'rinm, and other compounds of the metals, either natural or artificial.

I make no claim in this application to the fluxing and separating compound having the several ingredients referred to as being es sential to the carrying out of my process, said compound being described and claimed in my concurrent application for Letters Patent, filed March 13, 1901, Serial No. 50,999.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. That process for the treatment of ores which consists in mixing the ore with asbestos and a flux and in subjecting the ore thus treatedto the action of heat.

2. That process for the treatment of ores which consists in mixing the ore with asbestos and a flux and in subjecting the ore thus treated to the action of an oxygen-furnishing agent and heat.

3. That process for the treatment of ores which consists in mixing the ore with asbestos and a fiux, and in subjecting the ore thus treated to the action of heat in the presence of oxygen furnished both mechanically and by chemical reaction.

4. That process for the treatment of ores which consists in mixing the ore with asbestos, a flux and permanganate of potash, and in subjecting the ore thus treated to the action of heat.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature'iu the presence of two witnesses.

ANANIAS D. MILLER. 

